This day in local history: Oct. 20

Editor’s note: The following news items are taken from old editions of The Reporter, which has been published under several names in the last 150-plus years.

Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth | Oct. 20, 1884

To the voters of Fond du Lac County. I do hereby announce myself as a candidate for the office of District Attorney, subject to the suffrage of the voters of this county, independent of any county convention to be held: pledged in the event of my election to a faithful discharge of the duties of said office without subjecting the county to the cost of any assistance in the prosecution of causes or in representing the interests of the tax payers of the county; and to a speedy and diligent prosecution of the causes pending on the criminal calendar for a long time and hitherto undisposed of. Your obedient servant, Henry J. Gerpheide, Dated, Fond du Lac, Wis., Oct. 18, 1884.

The Daily Reporter| Oct. 20, 1914:

Deitz petition at Governor’s desk — Whether John Deitz, the defender of Cameron Dam, who is at present serving a list sentence at Waupun, will be pardoned now rests with Governor McGovern.

Leslie Deitz, a son of the defender has a petition of 3,000,000 signatures which include the names of a great number of state governors throughout the union and hopes to present the petition to President Wilson in a short time. Leslie has traveled over 11,000 miles on foot in getting this number of signatures.

The question now arising is: Has the United States any law whereby a prisoner, who is not held in a federal prison and was not tried under the jurisdiction of the federal courts, can be pardoned by the chief executive of the nation? Has it ever been know that a prisoner in a state prison has been pardoned by the president of the United States?

Attorney Maurice McKenna, who was active in the Deitz case at the time it was taken into courts says: “I have never heard of the president pardoning anyone where the case did not come under federal jurisdiction. The state petition is now before Governor McGovern and has been argued by Attorneys H. F. Cochem of Milwaukee and E. H. Naber of Mayville, in whose hands the petition was placed. It is rumored that the governor will not take any action upon this petition until he is about to leave the office, but that fact is not definitely known.”

McKenna holds that it was an injustice to send Deitz to Waupun for life.

“During his trial John Deitz was not given a fair chance to prove himself innocent,” said Attorney McKenna, “He was pitted against three of the state’s most able lawyers and he was convicted mainly on circumstantial evidence.”

Mr. McKenna hopes that the governor will understand the situation and free Deitz from prison.

Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter | Oct. 20, 1939:

Complete ‘Blackout’ is listed for next week as a result of full eclipse, visible in city — All of Fond du Lac will be ”blacked out” the night of Oct. 27, but the event will have no connection with the European war.

Complete “blackouts” are common occurrences in Europe these days, but the warring nations will miss the one on Oct. 27. The “black out” which will be visible in Fond du Lac will be a nearly complete eclipse of the moon.

The eclipse is scheduled to start at 8:42 p.m. Eastern time or an hour earlier in Fond du Lac. The eclipse will begin when the moon enters the earth’s outer shadow and will reach 99 per cent totally during the dark shadow period from 11:45 p.m. to 3:18 a.m. on Oct. 28. The moon will leave the outer shadow at approximately 4:40 a.m.

Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter | Oct. 20, 1964:

Failure — An apparent auto theft backfired Monday night when the auto struck a tree as it was being backed out of a driveway on West Scott street.

Glenn W. Sell, 425 West Scott street, the owner of the auto, told police he found the car in the street with the radio on and the motor running.

A bystander told police that he saw someone run from the car. The right rear section of the machine was damaged when it hit the tree.